Maimonides on Translation

The 12th Century Jewish Scholar, Physician and Leader Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, to his friends) had this to say about a translator's mission:

The translator should try to comprehend the subject, explaining the theme according to his understanding in the other language. At times this involves changing the order of the words, using many to translate one, or one to translate many. The translator will need to add or delete so that the concept becomes clearly expressed.

Why is it, then, that 900 years later, so many translators still haven't figured this out?
Don't become a statistic - take Maimonides' wise advice today!

With thanks to Rafaella Levine for this quote. Rafaella, a former student and a wonderful Hebrew-English translator, hosted a translation group meeting for my former students in her home this week.

Pro-Bono Translation - Everybody wins...

You know that funny feeling you get when the phone rings and even before you see that the caller ID reads "Anonymous," you're already sensing that it's a telemarketer from some worthy non-profit organization. Should you pick up???

Don't get me wrong, I want to feed hungry children with cancer as much as anyone. Yet there is just something about the medium of telemarketing that makes me so uncomfortable.

Having worked extensively writing and translating for non-profits I have much to say on the matter, but this is not the forum for that discussion. We're here for some Translation R&R, and I want to propose that the best way that you can help your favorite worthy cause is to perform translations for them on a volunteer basis. It can be very beneficial for your career too...

We all know not all the money we donate to NPOs actually reaches the people they are trying to help (and with telemarketers its a fraction of that fraction). So if you want to help an organization in a direct and meaningful fashion, save your pennies to pay your bills and donate in kind. By producing well-written, readable fundraising and informational materials for them in your target language, you could well be helping to stimulate donations worth tens of thousands of dollars.

You will also be saving them from the dread clutches of the HCCTs ("Have Computer, Can't Tranzlate" - our new in-house term for "them"). These folks will charge them low rates to produce agonizing, embarrassing translations that make prospective donors either squirm or guffaw, potentially costing the worthy NPO tens of thousands dollars.

Volunteering for NPOs can be good for your career, as well as your soul. Certainly for a beginner, it will generate valuable experience and genuine content for their portfolio.

In addition, volunteer work frequently leads to paid work, though not always in the way you might expect. The cash-strapped NPO you're volunteering for may never be able to hire you, but the director may well recommend you to his friends or just the fact that your name is out there as a translator can lead to opportunities.

Volunteer translation, or should I say pro-bono translations (we're professional, right?), are a good investment for all translators, not just rookies looking to make their name. As I said, it's a donation that probably worth much more than you can afford monetarily. It establishes you as a professional whose interest in translation is not purely mercenary.

Everybody wins.

Except the telemarketers...

Time, Money and How to have Both

Time is money...

Whether or not you credit the rather skewed existential outlook at the basis of this saying, it seems to be referring in particular to the lot of the freelance translator. This is because in our industry we usually get paid by the word. This means that our earning capacity is directly linked to how fast we can translate, or, more precisely, how fast can we translate well. (Quality should not be a casualty in this equation as this will certainly reduce your earnings in the long run.)

Therefore, it makes sense that every translator from the fresh-hatched fledgling to the seasoned pro should be constantly looking to increase their speed. This is the best ways to increase your earnings, other than searching for better clients. Yet the former is an immediate sure bet. (There are many factors that make a client "good" and their rate of pay is only one of them, so don't be too quick to neglect reliable, steady clients in favor of the promise of fabulous riches if you can just turnaround that 10,000-word doc by tomorrow 9am!)

There a many ways that you can start working faster right now. I've already mentioned a few basic translation aids in previous posts, such as online dictionaries and CATs. Another way to increase your speed will be to improve your Internet research skills. On an even more basic level, simply by improving your general computer skills, e.g. typing speed, keyboard shortcuts, you will soon start to work considerably faster.

Here's one small feature that has saved me quite a lot of time in recent weeks: Desktop Search. This allows you to do lightening-speed searches of every nook and cranny of your memory. If you wrote on a document or email years ago and need to find it, you could do some sorting in your sentbox or use the search feature in Windows Explorer. This will certainly take you 3-4 minutes, maybe more. With Desktop Search, this will take miliseconds. In fact it will probably find your old file before you've even finished typing in your keyword!

Yesterday it took me the blink of an eye to find an attachment whose name I didn't know sent to me by someone 4.5 years ago - that's two dead computers ago.

To see a demonstration of Desktop Search, click here.

Can you make a living as a translator?

As a teacher of translation, the most frequently asked question I encounter from potential students is: "Can you really make a decent living as a translator?"

As a teacher of translation, I feel very strongly that this question should be answered with caution.

My answer: "You're asking me if I can make a decent living from translation? Well, thank God, I can and do. But what about you?"

I don't know if you can make a decent living from translating or not, because that depends on you. Success as a professional translator depends your ability to perform on three essential points, as well as a host of other primary skills and qualities that will also come into play at various points in your career.

But here are the "BIG 3":

1. You produce professional quality translations
2. You can produce the above under pressure and never* miss a deadline
3. You market your services effectively

Please note that I have not written this list in order of priority. I'm not sure which is the most important because they are all critical.

Are you ready for the BIG 3? If so, an exciting new world awaits you. Please keep reading...

*Never say never, but you get the idea.

Are you a translator?

I assume that if your reading this you are. This blog is getting quite a few hits and though I have no idea who the readers are, I assume that you are translators.

"Who me?" you may ask. "I have not completed an MA in Linguistics. I have hardly any experience, except that I once translated my neighbor's favorite haiku in exchange for him mowing my lawn. But that doesn't entitle me a to call myself a translator. I don't want to mislead anyone. I'm not a real translator, just... a wannabee, an amateur, a hack, a rookie..."

If that sounds like you, I applaud your honestly. However, I have news for you... you are indeed entitled to call yourself a translator. There is no rule that states that a person may not present himself as a translator, unlike a doctor, or accountant, or lawyer, for example. If you decide that you are a translator, then you are.

The question is: what sort of translator are you?

There are plenty of awful translators out there, but I am sure that you will not be counted among them. I am fairly certain that they don't read blogs or any other materials about the art and science of translation. They generally figure that if they know two languages and how to type, they are fully qualified to inflict themselves on clients and readers everywhere.

There are many excellent professional translators. Thanks for reading! You know that, no matter how experienced and successful you are, there is always a whole world of learning still waiting to be discovered, which will benefit your professional satisfaction and standard.

Then there are plenty of inexperienced and unpolished translators out there. Are you one of those? If so, that may well be fixable. Perhaps you should go get that MA or join some sort of translation training program.

I must admit I never completed one (though I did start one). I do have a BA in Communications (with majors in languages and journalism). That strikes just the right chord on my resume. I'm not obligated to mention that the language I majored in was Thai (don't ask) even though I translate from Hebrew to English.

I built my translation career through a lot of passion, research and hard work. I cannot actually tell you how hard I sweated over my computer in the early years of my career.

I created my Translators' Training Program to give people a jump-start in the industry in three months without having to go through what I did over a period of about two years.

This week I read with interest on the Israel Translators' Association mailing list that there is an attempt to create an international standard for quality for professional translators. It will be based on BS EN 15038:2006, an EU standard. Apparently, that standard requires that translators have either:
1) formal higher education in translation (recognized degree);
2) equivalent qualification in any other subject plus a minimum of two years
of documented experience in translating;
3) over five years of documented professional experience in translating.

This standard sounds very sensible. In fact, I tell my students (who almost all have at least one academic qualification) that it will take them about two years of translation work to reach a first-rate professional standard. (I was also relieved to find out that if any of my clients find out that my major was in Thai, that I can tell them that I still qualify for the EU standard on two other counts!)

You don't need training to be a translator, but it certainly helps.

What kind of translator are you?

The Trados Trade-Off

Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) - Sounds great! But only a little bit of research and the pitfalls become clear. They are really expensive (Trados is 695 Euro) and their usefulness is somewhat limited since they only remember sentences that they've seen before. That means that if you are translating a text that is just a dash more creative than the phone book, it is unlikely that you'll have any matches at all. On the other hand, if you're translating standard, repetitive legal or technical texts, whole sentences, if not paragraphs, are given to you as freebies. Very nice, since we get paid by the word.

But I have to admit, I've never felt motivated enough to shell out to buy it. The fact that there a experts known as "Trados trainers" deters me. If you need a specially trained professional to teach a translator (generally a computer savvy breed) how to use software, you know it's complicated. That doesn't mean it's not worthwhile, but it does mean that its not the kind of purchase you rush in to. Rather, you wait for the right moment, and for a busy translator, that moment may never arrive.

I still believe I'll buy it one day, if not for my own sake then at least so I'll be able to tell my students if it's worthwhile. But up to this point, I've only used the free CAT options, and there are a few. I'll discuss what I've learned from this experience in my next post.

(PS. In case you are dying to hear more about Trados from a translator who actually uses it, check out this link to the AboutTranslation blog. Note that he prays fervently for it's demise, but doesn't stop using it. Sounds like the love-hate relationship many of us have with certain other software.)

Welcome to Translation R&R!

Just ask any hard-working pro translator what they need most - the answer will be "some R&R." Not just Rest & Relaxation (though that alone would be most welcome), but also some really great Resources & References. R&R is one of the the keys to producing truly first-rate translations (this blog will offer translators the other kind of R&R too).

It will also be jam-packed with tips and info related to the translation profession, including finding good translation jobs and dealing with clients, the usefulness of various software and online tools, translating The Untranslatable, lots of humorous stories and examples of the joys and pitfalls of the translation game, and much more.

I want to start by saying that I love translating. It is for me a passion and a calling. As well as working as a Hebrew-English translator, I run a translator's training program with WritePoint in Jerusalem. Thank God I found teaching, because it allows me to channel my overflowing enthusiasm for my job towards helping others get started, rather than stupefying acquaintances I meet at bar mitzvahs by regaling them with my latest death-defying translation adventures.

I look forward to sharing my knowledge, experience and love of translation with a wider audience through this blog!

Enjoy and feel free to leave friendly and constuctive comments!